Struggle on Demand: Shaping Contemporary North Korea's Public Sphere through Memory Politics

Abstract

This research aims to fill a gap in discussion of societal control in North Korea. By em-ploying a framework built upon authoritarian public sphere theories, the paper analyses whether Kim Jong-un’s memory politics have been different from those of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in the context of shaping the public sphere. The study argues that while ‘memory’ has become a more critical tool of societal control in Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, it seems inevitable paradoxically for him to navigate towards creating a legacy of his own that is detached from ‘memory’ due to the changing societal environment.